Just back from an all-too-brief family vacation to Cape Breton and the Halifax area. This trip wasn’t really about golf so I got just one round in, but Cabot Links is in great shape, especially considering the rough winter Canada had. In addition to the course, there are a couple of great new Cabot-linked facilities in Inverness: The pub opened last year, and the coffee shop, which opened just a few weeks ago, now offers a very high quality of breakfast and lunch fare. The sunsets and the beach, which Cabot can’t properly take credit for, are still pretty fantastic, as well.
IMG_1233 by
Guynick, on Flickr
I didn’t have time for the proper tour at Cabot Cliffs this time (I did see it on my trip two years ago), but I was on the beach one evening and poked my head over the dunes at the southwest corner. Most of the buzz about Cliffs has rightly focused on the northeast end of the property, where the cliffs are so spectacular, but these early dunes holes will put a pretty cool stamp on the front nine.
Here are three holes I got to see. Routing places confirmed by Ben himself.
1. Hole #5, a cape-style par four: The southernmost hole in the routing curls SE-NW around the small river that marks the property’s south boundary. The green is hard by the river valley and the dunes on three sides, with a prominent right-side knob that looks like it will greatly complicate the safer route home. The entire hole is visible from MacLeod’s cottages across the river.
DSC_0132 by
Guynick, on Flickr
DSC_0128 by
Guynick, on Flickr
2. Hole #6, a shortish par three: Running SW-NE parallel to the ocean in a hammock of dunes, with a back tee on a ridge between the river hole and the beach. The green is in a small hollow – or perhaps falling away on two tiers?
DSC_0133 by
Guynick, on Flickr
DSC_0139 by
Guynick, on Flickr
3. Hole #2, a short to mid-length par four: Running NE-SW parallel to the ocean, this hole looks like a real test of nerve early in the round. From what I can tell, it offers a Y-shaped fairway. The best play off the tee will depend on the driver’s gumption and the location of the pin behind a daunting greenfront pit. (There’s also a small forced carry over a stream.) The course as a whole will obviously transition frequently between cliff, dune and forest areas, and this hole looks like it could have a bit of all three.
CabotCliffs-panorama by
Guynick, on Flickr
DSC_0136 by
Guynick, on Flickr
That’s all I saw, although there’s a lot of green up on top of the distant cliffs and some extremely cool photos are starting to pop up on Twitter and Flickr. I get the sense a couple of golf writers will be in town in coming days or weeks – looking forward to seeing what comes out of that.